Acts of Union: Mixed Marriage in Modern Ireland

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'Do you know the Greek word endogamein? It means to marry within the tribe. And the word exogamein means to marry outside the tribe. And you don't cross those borders casually - both sides get very angry'. So claims Jimmy Jack, a character in Brian Friel's play Translations, first performed in 1980, in a thinly veiled warning about an Irish woman's relationship with an English soldier. Translations is an example of a 'love across the divide' story: a type of romance narrative that depicts Ireland's difficult relationship with Britain as a (sexually) frustrated and dangerous romance between lovers from 'opposing sides'. These 'national romance' stories have an incredibly long history stretching back to the Anglo-Norman colonisation of Ireland in the twelfth century. In fact, the relationship between Britain and Ireland has often been described as a marriage, with Ireland the wife.Such symbolism is all very well but what was life like for those involved in actual 'mixed marriages', or 'mixed relationships', where one partner was Catholic and one Protestant, or one Nationalist and the other Unionist? How many couples were there involved in such mixed relationships and were these sorts of unions less likely to happen at particular times in Ireland's history, such as during the War of Independence, or the Troubles? What happened to their children? What did romantic relationships between members of the nationalist community and the overseas military look like? These are the sorts of questions that will drive this research project. Although 'mixed marriage' in an Irish context is understood to mean between a Catholic and Protestant, this project will also touch upon relationships between people of different races; and the changing patterns of love and marriage with regards to LGBTQIA+ rights and increasing migration to Ireland in the latter decades of the twentieth century. The key academic outputs from this project are an interdisciplinary, co-authored monograph, a series of articles, a major international conference and a co-edited collection.This robust programme of academic research will be complemented by an extensive public engagement and impact strategy. Planned events and activities include: the commissioning and production of a new piece of theatre based on the project's findings, which will be performed in Belfast, Dublin, Derry and Cork; a public film series; an exhibition with public talks by project team members; and a short documentary film. The public will be kept informed about the project's progress through a dedicated website and social media presence.Marrying across political and/or religious divides has often been a contentious issue; especially in Ireland, where the stakes of these allegiances are high. Despite the relative prevalence of the phenomenon and the vital insight that studying these marriage patterns could give us into an extraordinarily turbulent period in Irish and British history, there has been very limited research on this subject. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws together historical, cultural and literary research, this project will produce the first sustained engagement with 'mixed marriage', or 'Love across the Divide' across the island of Ireland in the twentieth century. It will explicate how the narratives told about Irish culture, politics and society intersect with the lived experience of Irish people.There is an apocryphal joke that Irish society, especially in Northern Ireland, is so divided between its putative 'two communities' that even a Jewish person would be asked whether they were a 'Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew'. This project will turn that fallacy on its head by exploring the stories of those who lived their lives beyond this narrow binary. As such, it will complicate and enrich our understanding of the relationship between Britain and Ireland, and the fabric of Irish society itself.